Marketing Funnel Overflow – How To Align Your Campaign Strategy

Marketing funnel feeders for campaign alignment
Put each marketing funnel feeder into the magic hat. Shake it around and pull out a consistent message

A common problem in SMB’s (small to medium businesses) is something I like to call Marketing Funnel Overflow – where the traffic pouring into your business is coming from competing rather than complimentary sources.

When you have multiple small teams in your marketing department, campaign messaging can break down unless there is a strong and cohesive strategic direction. Consider the following marketing sources that commonly have teams in the marketing department:

  • Direct Email – often run by an email marketing team
  • Banner Ads – often designed by the communications design team
  • Affiliates – handled by the affiliate marketing team
  • Paid Search (such as Google AdWords) – set up by the internet marketing team
  • Social Media – a mix of bloggers, and social networking practitioners

Despite the intention to run a single campaign with a single message, the moment it gets split up into these 5 potential avenues, the delivery of that message can change. Not to mention the limitations that certain media place on your messaging (140 characters on Twitter, limited line length in AdWords etc.)

Make Sure You’re On The Same (Landing) Page

Before you send 5 jumbled sets of traffic (each with it’s own expectation) through to your landing page, make sure you get everyone working together at the source. Print out the customers’ view of each entry point (the AdWords, banners, emails and tweets etc.) and stick them up on the wall of your office. Get the whole team around to gather round and analyze the communication you are sending out to the world.

If you see any inconsistencies, get them addressed before campaign launch.

What Happens If You Let The Marketing Funnel Overflow?

If you let all these disparate messages flow into your funnel, they’ll get tangled up, and won’t flow smoothly through the sales process. The net result of which will be to make your landing page perform poorly. In reality, the campaign is performing poorly, but often the finger will point at the landing page that isn’t converting the traffic.

So align your team, align your message and let the traffic flow through your marketing funnel without resistance.

Oli Gardner

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About Oli Gardner
Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. He’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad marketing practices, and his disdain for marketers who send campaign traffic to their homepage is legendary, resulting in landing page rants that can peel paint off an unpainted wall. A prolific international keynote speaker, Oli is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike. He was recently named the "The 2018 Marketer to Watch," in the under 46 category, by his mother.
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